Science of Reading

The buzz words that everyone in the education sector is talking about. What does it mean?

The Science of Reading isn’t actually anything new. In fact the research has been around for over 20 years (NRP 2000). The body of research really focuses on how the brain learns to read and a lot of the information comes from Scarborough’s Reading Rope and the Simple View of Reading model (Gough and Tunmer 1986)- Decoding (D) x Language Comprehension (LC) = Reading Comprehension (RC.

When schools incorporate explicit systematic phonics and phonological awareness practices in the early years, it is beneficial to all students, harmful to none and crucial for some. Research shows that 20-30 minutes a day is crucial to move these skills into mastery level. Some students will need less ‘intensive’ phonics skills and some may require more.

The key is to still ensure we incorporate ‘The Big 6 of Reading’ (Dezlea Konza) into our instruction; phonics, phonological awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension and oral language.